Moving Pictures and Other Things

A few years ago I got this puzzle (provided by my brother Steve) during a Dirty Santa Christmas swap. I got it out a few days ago and started working on it. It’s nearly finished now, with only black pieces remaining. It’s the classic situation I see at work all the time – where the last 20% takes 80% of the time.

The puzzle depicts the cover of my all-time favorite album. It may also be my favorite album cover. It was beautifully staged photographed. I listened to it while I worked. Since I’m rattling off favorite things, I might as well say that the fifth track, “The Camera Eye” is also my favorite song (and has been for a very long time).

In the Moving Other Things department, I helped a friend move yesterday – Christmas Day. They bought a new house (built in 1780) and needed to be out of their apartment post haste. I found out that he was planning to do the move on Christmas, so I asked him who was helping him. He said it was just he and his wife. No way! So David and I went over there around 11:00am yesterday. Two of his brothers showed up too (I had never met them before), so we had five able-bodied men at the scene.

Yes, it included a piano.

We loaded the truck, drove to his new place, and then unloaded it again. We were done by 2:30. I wanted to grab lunch at Taco Bell, but David reminded me that they’re closed on Christmas. So we went home and had a snack. Va fixed us something very nice for dinner.

My original plan was to go over there around 9 or 10 am, but I noticed there was a new geocache hidden not too far from my house, and no one had found it yet. So I went and grabbed it. I have tried many times to score a first-to-find (FTF) on a cache, and there have been several occasions where I was 10 minutes too late. But not this time! I got my first FTF on Christmas Day. Hooray! I also stopped and too a picture of this fallen chicken house:

Collapsed Chicken House

It collapsed sometime last summer. I had kept meaning to get a photo of it, but just couldn’t manage to find the time. I would imagine that taking it down the rest of the way would be a fairly dangerous proposition. Maybe the snow this winter will flatten it a little more.

Back in 1982 some friends and I were talking about our favorite bands/artists. Kirk couldn’t decide between John Lennon & Paul McCartney. He finally settled on Lennon. Kevin (who brought the subject up) suggested that Kirk chose Lennon because he had recently been murdered, and Kirk agreed that he was probably right. Kevin then noted that Rush would still be my favorite band in 20 years. Well, it’s almost been thirty years now, and Kevin was right.

Sounds like Kevin knew you well-he must have been a good friend. I remember seeing the Beatles that first night on The Ed Sullivan Show and I knew that the world had changed-certainly MY world had-but I can’t say that I have a favorite band. If I was absolutely forced to name one it would probably have to be the Beatles, but there are so many excellent bands that picking just one hardly seems possible.